The present invention relates inter alia to porcine retrovirus (PoEV) fragments, in particular polynucleotide fragments encoding at least one porcine retrovirus expression product, a recombinant vector comprising at least one polynucleotide fragment, use of PoEV polynucleotide fragments in the detection of native porcine retrovirus, a host cell containing at least one PoEV polynucleotide fragment or a recombinant vector comprising at least one PoEV polynucleotide fragment, PoEV polypeptides, antibodies immuno-reactive with PoEV polypeptides, pharmaceutical compositions comprising recombinant PoEV polypeptides for use as prophylactic and/or therapeutic agents and uses of PoEV polynucleotide fragments and/or polypeptides in medicine, including veterinary medicine and in the preparation of medicaments for use in medicine, including veterinary medicine.
Porcine retrovirus (PoEV) is an endogenous (genetically acquired) retrovirus isolated from pigs and expressed in cell lines derived from porcine material. There are no known pathogenic effects associated with the virus per se in its natural host although the virus appears to be associated with lymphomas in pigs and related viruses are associated with leukaemias and lymphomas in other species. The virus has been reported to infect cells from a variety of non-porcine origins and is, therefore, designated as a xenotropic, amphotropic or polytrophic virus (Lieber M M, Sherr C J. Benveniste R E and Todaro G J. 1975; Strandstrom H, Verjalainen P, Moening V, Hunsmann G, Schwarz H, and Schafer W. 1974; Todaro G J, Benveniste R E, Lieber M M and Sherr C J. 1974). The observation that the above viruses may have the potential to infect humans and have a pathogenic effect suggests that the issue of porcine retroviruses must be addressed in the context of xenotransplanting pig tissues or cells. Therefore, information on the properties of PoEV and the development of diagnostic reagents, molecular engineering tools and potential vaccine materials is of paramount importance for example in xenotransplantation technology and the like.